Bound
by bashfulglowfly
Summary: After Rin has the Three-Tails forced upon her, she realizes that they might actually have to work together to survive.


**Bound**

 **By Bashfulglowfly**

Rin couldn't run any farther. She collapsed to her knees and vomited the non-existent contents of her stomach.

The screaming in her head grew even louder.

Tears were rolling down her face as she sat back on her heels and screamed her anguish out to the uncaring Gods. Then she screamed her hate to the only one that was close enough to hear her.

" **SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! I'M SICK OF YOU! I HATED YOU BEFORE THEY EVEN SEALED YOU IN ME! DO YOU REALLY THINK I WANT TO BE STUCK WITH A FILTHY THING LIKE YOU? I HATE YOU!"** Rin panted trying to catch her breath.

 _You…didn't want this?_

Rin's laughter was just short of maniacal. "Want this? Want to be a jinchuriki? I'd rather…" She shuddered.

 _Oh._

 _I'm sorry._

Rin blinked. Now that the three-tails wasn't screaming anymore it sound almost…timid. "I've seen how other jinchuriki are treated."

 _You know another one of us?_

Rin spoke cautiously. "I know the jinchuriki of the nine-tails."

 _Kurama's an ass._

"Kurama? I thought he was Kyuubi."

There was now irritation in the voice. _Kyuubi is what he is. Even chakra beings have names, you know._

Rin's eyes widened and her mind raced. She settled down in a proper seated position and gave a formal bow as she had been taught in her kunoichi class. "My name is Nohara Rin. I am a shinobi of Konoha and the student of Namikaze Minato the Yellow Flash. I am a med-nin. It is a pleasure to meet you."

There was a long pause. Then… _I am Isobu the Sanbi. It is a pleasure to meet you as well._

Rin took a deep breath. "Do you know what Kiri has planned for us?"

 _Other than binding us together, no._

"The seal that they used is imperfect. They want me to return home then the seal will break allowing you to become free and then you'll destroy Konoha."

After several minutes Isobu spoke. _I want to be free. I remember being free. I was born free. Being bound to anyone has never been my choice. But I was forced to bond with a human by the human known as Hashirama. He was not nice._

Rin nearly choked at the thought of Konoha's beloved First Hokage as not being a nice person, but she realized that there were always more that one side to a story and to a person. Isobu certainly saw things differently and had the right to a different viewpoint. "I'm sorry."

There was a soft watery laugh. _I'm sorry too. I'm sure that my screaming at you didn't help._

"No. But you stopped. And I'm sorry about the things I said."

There was a quiet hum then chakra flowed over her, gently, softly, like a warm bath. _You like that?_

Rin smiled. Her muscles were relaxed for the first time in days. "Yes, thank you. I feel better now."

 _I knew someone who liked taking warm baths. It relaxed him. I learned how to make my chakra feel that way so that he could have that feeling even when we weren't near warm water._

"You liked him."

 _I loved him. He was…father._

"Earlier you said that Kurama was an ass. What do you mean by that?"

The sensation she felt was now water about ready to boil. She felt Isobu sniff in distain. _Kurama thinks that just because he was born first and has nine tails that he's better than everybody else. You know how much older he is than me? SIX SECONDS!_ _ **SIX!**_ _Big whoop-de-doo! You know what puts out fires. Water! I'll kick his flaming ass from here to wherever I want! I'll show him…_

Rin couldn't help it. She began to laugh. She laughed so hard that she fell over onto the ground.

 _?_

She wiped the tears away from her eyes. "I'm sorry Isobu. I wasn't laughing at you. I promise."

 _I think I understood that you weren't. You needed to laugh. Humans are strange._

"Humans are very strange." Rin agreed. "Would you like to show Kurama how much better you are than him?"

 _?_

Rin elaborated. "It just came to me. We're bound together. There's nothing we can do about that. At least for now. I want to go home but I also don't want to destroy my home. But, if we can get close, we might be able to find someone who can go get my sensei and then he might be able to do something to help us."

She could feel Isobu thinking. _I wouldn't be shut away?_

"No. I think I like talking to you. Would you be willing to work with me? Help Konoha?"

 _That Hashirama isn't there, is he?_

Rin realized that Isobu might not have a concept about the lifetime of humans, so she kept it simple. "No. He died a long time ago."

 _Would it make you sad if I said 'good'?_

"Not really. He died long before I was born. I was taught about him. We were taught that he was special since he was the first Hokage and that he founded our village, but I understand why you don't like him."

 _Let's go to your home. I…I am not sure still. Humans have not been nice to me. But I'll try._ Rin felt a bubbling smirk. _And if it pisses off Kurama…even better._

Rin giggled and stood up. "Let's go home."

 _You don't have any food. I know humans need food._

"I can find some. We had classes about how to survive when you run out of supplies."

 _If we get near water, I can show you things that would be good to eat. I could also help you catch fish._

"Thank you." Rin made sure that there was complete sincerity in her answer. Isobu's response was to flood her system with chakra.

 _Let's go to your home. And when we get there, I'll bite Kurama's tails off and he'll have to be called Stumpy._

Rin giggled as she began to run once more.


End file.
